So you were the same Marty'
by enigma939
Summary: Doc's POV. Emmett always knew there was something vaguely familiar about Marty McFly...on the day he received the Key to the City...he KNEW! Ties in with the final episode of the Telltale game


'**So you were the same Marty...'**

**A/N: **For a while now, I've wanted to write a fic about the Telltale BTTF game, which I consider 'semi-canon' given Bob Gale's involvement with it. So I decided to write a piece about how Marty's brief friendship with young Emmett in 1931 would have repercussions on the latter's life and memory...and, from Doc's point of view, reveal what led him to make his sudden appearance in the Delorean towards the end of Episode Five ('Outatime')...

"_What's that?" he asked Marty, looking at the small piece of newspaper his mysterious friend was holding out to him._

"_An explanation", Marty alias 'Michael Corleone' replied in his usual mysterious way. _

_Intrigued, Emmett reached out his hand to take the piece of newspaper from Marty, but Marty did not let go of it..._

"_But you've got to promise me...", Marty added in a serious tone. "Don't look at it till you get the Key to the City."_

"_Huh?" he said, taken aback by Marty's cryptic demand. From the Expo Hall, he could make out the distant sound of his father calling him back into the hall, but he ignored it._

"_I'll be right there, Pop", he called back to his father. "Key to the City?", he said to Marty. "I don't understand..."_

"_And you CAN'T understand. Not for a long time. It would do irreparable damage to...something", Marty replied earnestly. "Just...just say you promise"._

_Seeing the sincere expression on his friend's face, Emmett could do nothing less than promise._

"_Wait...I WILL see you again, right?" he asked, taking one last glance at Marty before he walked back into the Expo Hall._

"_I guarantee it", Marty said, a strange look of irony, of foreknowledge even, in his eyes._

_Saturday, November 5__th__, 1955_

Dr. Emmett Brown settled into his comfortable bed and stared at the ceiling.

The events of the last few hours had been unbelievable.

'Unbelievable' was too mild a word in fact.

Great Scott! To think that that vision he'd had when he fell off his toilet seat this afternoon would actually bear fruit! To think that, thirty years from now, he would succeed in inventing an actual, honest-to-God, working time machine! A _time machine_! Built out of a futuristic sports car! It was _beyond _his wildest dreams, and he'd certainly had quite a few since those distant days of tinkering around in his garage lab behind his father's disapproving back...

And then, once he had exhausted all possible amazement any sane individual _could _possibly have with the idea of time travel being possible, his thoughts drifted to the other aspect of this day's fantastic occurrences...

Marty McFly...the kid from the future.

The teenager whom he was destined to meet and befriend in the 1980's, and who would participate in his greatest experiment ever. The boy who had travelled back thirty years into the past, encountered his parents, and inadvertently endangered his very existence! The idea was fascinating beyond belief for Emmett (or 'Doc' as Marty apparently called his future self), if not simultaneously horrifying!

Yes, the next week would be busy...just as busy as it would be amazing. He would have to harness the power of a lightining bolt to power a time machine he would only invent thirty years later! He would have to help Marty ensure that his future parents met and fell in love! And above all, he would have to clamp down on his curiosity about the future (the hardest thing by far for him, given his inherently curious nature...)

Yes, it would be a _very_ busy week...time for him to get some sleep now...

As Emmett entered a nearly semi-conscious state, and was on the verge of sleep, Marty's face swam before mind's eye. For some reason, the face seemed vaguely familiar. He had no idea why! There was no rationale reason for that...after all, while Marty had met him (or rather, _would _meet him) in the future, he was meeting Marty for the first time today. Then why could he not shake of that odd feeling of familiarity...

And it wasn't just the face...but the name 'Marty'...where had he met someone with that name before..._when_...

He was about halfway asleep when the answer suddenly came to him out of the depths of exhaustion...

Marty! His old friend from his 'rookie' days as an amateur inventor...That mysterious kid who'd shown up one July (in 1931, if memory served) claiming to be from the Patent Office, and wanting to borrow his rocket drill. The guy who'd helped him capture the notorious gangster Kid Tannen. The guy who'd re-ignited his passion for science in his most depressing moments...and who'd had some strange connection with the suspected speakeasy arsonist Carl Sagan (though it had actually been his ex-girlfriend Edna who'd been behind that). The guy who'd disappeared on the final day of the Expo, but not before giving Emmett a piece of newspaper, and making him promise not to read it until he received 'the key to the City'...a promise Emmett had, consciously or subconsciously, honoured too this day, over 24 years later...

But...it couldn't be the same Marty! There couldn't be _any _possible connection between them. Not even a familial one. Marty was no doubt the grandson of Arthur McFly, who'd been the accountant in charge of that Expo...but there could be no connection between Marty McFly and that 'other Marty'...

Could there?

Come to think of it, he couldn't even remember exactly _what _his old friend even _looked _like...sure the other Marty had had brown hair as well...but surely he'd been taller?

Of course, there _was _a possible explanation...a fantastic, unbelievable one occurring even now at the back of his head...but..._no_, it couldn't be...that was absurd!

_Steady on, Emmett_, he cautioned himself. _You've been thinking so much about the future since that 'Future Boy' arrived that you've now started fantasising about the past! Stay focused...you've got a job to do..._

Yes, his conscience was right. He had a job to do!

Yes, he said to himself again, as he drifted to sleep finally...there _was _no connection between the two Marty's...after all, he'd heard the legend of a strange blacksmith also named 'Emmett Brown' who'd lived in Hill Valley before the turn of the century...and there was _definitely _no connection between _that _man and him!

_Wednesday, June 14__th__, 1986_

Today was one of the proudest days in Emmett Brown's life.

Perhaps it ranked second to the evening of his first Expo in 1931. Or to the night of the first temporal experiment. Or to the day his two sons, Jules and Verne, were born. But it was one of the proudest days nonetheless!

Key to the City!

He would never have believed it.

After all those years..._decades_...of being ridiculed as a crackpot...he'd _finally _earned some recognition for his contributions, however strange and incomprehensible to many, to Hill Valley.

There had been that award in 1983, but that was pretty low-key compared to this. The publicity this event had generated was astounding! Simply astounding! Why, the _Hill Valley Telegraph _even carried a front page story on it in their evening edition...

The _Hill Valley Telegraph_...the newspaper...

Newspaper!

It had struck Doc on the drive back home from a celebratory late lunch, with Clara and the kids, that this event _should not _have been _completely _unexpected...after all, hadn't he been told, fifty five years ago, that he would someday receive the Key to the City...

Fifty five years ago...by a mysterious friend of his named 'Marty'...

Marty!

"Great Scott", he whispered to himself. "What is it dear?" Clara asked him.

"Oh, it's nothing...just...something from a _long _time ago..." he replied.

On the way back, he picked up a copy of the newspaper...sure enough, there was a picture of his beaming face from earlier that day, receiving the Key...

Once they reached home, he could barely move fast enough towards the door of his newly-purchased house (just a short distance away from his old garage, which he still maintained, and where he was having a small garage sale tomorrow), and up to his study. There, he hastily entered the combination of a safe (a futuristic safe he'd purchased in the year 2011 on his recent visit there), and opened it.

He rummaged around before he produced the small piece of newspaper his old friend Marty had given him in 1931...

When he looked at it...he nearly collapsed from shock...

It was the _exact same article _as the one in the newspaper he'd bought not ten minutes ago! Today's paper...from which a piece had been torn and given to him _fifty five years ago_! By a strange kid named Marty...

Great Scott! It _was _true! The strange hunch he'd had back in 1955...

It _was _Marty! His friend, Marty...his 'partner in time'...

After all, hadn't Marty cautioned him against looking at the newspaper piece...claiming it would cause 'irreparable damage' to 'something'. _The space-time continuum of course_, Doc thought to himself, still stunned by his discovery.

Besides, he should have realised it of course in any case...who else would think of sending a message in this manner? Who had given him a letter he had kept safely with him for thirty years, warning him of a future event he needed to change? Who had given him the idea of doing the same, with the letter he'd written in 1885 to be delivered seventy years later...?

Marty, of course!

Marty had been his mysterious friend in 1931! He had travelled back in time there in...the Delorean! Of course...he remembered that futuristic car that attracted a fair amount of attention about town and which always seemed to show up whenever Marty was around!

But, if the Marty he'd met in 1931 was _his _Marty...then Carl Sagan...

Doc nearly fainted at this realisation. He rushed over to a nearby mirror...and found another eerily familiar face...

Great Scott!

_He _was Carl Sagan!

But then, that didn't make sense. He remembered Sagan plotting with Edna against him...kidnapping him to sabotage his experiment at the Expo.

Why would he do that to _himself_?

Puzzled, Doc mused about it for a while. It was clear that many of the events in 1931 had been caused by time travelling versions of himself and Marty. But _where _had those time travelling selves come from? _When_?

But of course...Marty had _today's _newspaper with him...therefore, Marty had to have arrived from May 14th, 1986...

And the 'other' version of himself...Carl Sagan? Considering what 'Sagan' had tried to do to alter history by disrupting the start of his scientific career...Doc could only conclude that that had been an alternate version of himself from another timeline...one which Marty's actions in 1931 had somehow erased...

It was fascinatingly convoluted, and Doc was simply _dying _to know the whole story!

But, first things first...he needed to test his theory about the Marty he'd met in the past being the Marty from May 14th 1986...

He picked up the phone and dialled Marty's home number. His father, George, replied.

"Hello, George. This is Emmett here. I was wondering if I could speak to Marty?", Doc asked.

"Oh, hello Doc. Nope, I'm sorry, Marty isn't here now. He was actually at your garage some time back. Then he said he needed to go somewhere and find someone. He was dressed pretty strangely too...wearing something which looked like my old man's clothes! But you know, kid's today Emmett...they have pretty weird tastes when it comes to clothes...", George said.

"Your quiet right", Emmett said, cutting off the author's long reply mid-sentence. Once again he marvelled at how much confidence George McFly had gained since that week in 1955. "It's just that, he'd borrowed my Delorean...and I needed it back tonight for...an experiment".

"Oh...well, I think he drove off in your Delorean...but I'm sure he'll bring it back soon if he knew you really needed it...", George said. "I don't really know _why _he needed it though...his truck's perfectly fine".

"I'm afraid _I _was the one who'd asked him to take it for a drive...I'd just made some...modifications...to it and I wanted him to try it out. I completely forgot about my other experiment. My fault. Sorry to disturb you, George", Emmett said.

"No problem, Doc. By the way, are any of your first edition Jules Verne's going on sale?" George asked hopefully.

"Not a chance George!" Emmett laughed, as he put down the phone.

So, Marty had driven off in the Delorean...but the Delorean was locked up safely in the underground garage of his new house.

An _alternate _Delorean perhaps...

This was getting _way _too complicated!

All the more reason for him to go back and rendezvous with Marty. After all, if his alternate self was either hostile to Marty, or which was more likely, erased from existence...and Marty lost access to this alternate Delorean (whose existence was _also _precarious), Marty would need help getting back to the future!

Fifteen minutes later, Doc was in the Delorean driving towards the site of the Hill Valley Expo in 1931. During the drive, he replayed the scene of his last meeting with Marty in 1931.

"_Wait...I WILL see you again, right?", he'd asked._

"_I guarantee it", Marty had assured him._

"Oh, we will meet again soon Marty...this time..._I'll _guarantee it!" Doc said to himself, even as he inputted the Destination Time. October 15th, 1931...5:35 PM. Just about a minute or two after he remembered walking back into the Expo Hall that had been wrecked by his 'flying car'...

He accelerated, watching the speedometer climb to 88 miles per hour...

Once the 'magic number' had been reached, the Flux Capacitor discharged its temporal energy...

_Thursday, October 15__th__, 1931_

...and he was soon standing outside the Hill Valley Expo of 1931...as though the last fifty five years had never happened. He almost felt tempted to walk back into the Expo Hall and meet his father.

Time travel was simply amazing!

And sure enough, there was Marty...Marty, the 'Future Boy' he'd met in 1955; Marty, the teenager from 1986; Marty, his old friend from 1931..._all _one and the same after all!

He and Marty stared at each other for a few moments...Marty with an unbelieving expression on his face...

They then walked closer to each other.

Emmett's head was bursting with a thousand questions...a million things he wanted to say. The events of fifty five years ago (or rather, the last few months) needed explanation...explanations which Marty could now safely give him without endangering the continuum.

However, all this would be in good time. First things first, he needed to get Marty out of here.

"So you were the same Marty!" he said, looking at his old friend, whom he'd paradoxically last seen both yesterday and fifty five years ago. "Funny how memory can play tricks on a person...I remember you being much taller."

Marty's response was to embrace him.

Well, Doc thought, there certainly was a story behind all this...and some version of him was definitely involved...and he _would _get to the bottom of the situation...but for now, at least he'd solved _one _of the greatest mysteries of his life!

**A/N: **I would like to clarify that I believe the Doc we see in Episode Five (and therefore, the Doc in this story) is distinct from the Doc we saw in Episodes One and Two...hence, he doesn't remember why Marty's in 1931, or being Carl Sagan.


End file.
